Greatest Basketball Quotes

#1. If you told me two years I would miss the greatest basketball game ever to hang out with Nathan Lane, I'd say, 'You're crazy!'

Chris Rock

#2. Earl "The Goat" Manigault was probably the greatest basketball player of all time, but Michael Jordan is universally regarded as the best ever. This is because The Goat only did it at Rucker Park, while Michael did it where it mattered: in front of the world.

Tucker Max

#3. When your teammate looks you in the eye and holds you accountable, that's the greatest kind of leadership there is

Doug Collins

#4. Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

Lin Yutang

#5. People say it was the greatest individual rivalry they've ever seen. I agree with that. Let me assure you that if either Wilt's or Russ' coach had ever told one of them he couldn't guard the other guy, he would have lost that player forever.

Bill Russell

#6. I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.

Bill Russell

#7. Don't be mad at me for my success. Be mad at yourself for not doing what it takes to get what I have. Then do something amazing with that emotion.

Dan Pearce

#8. I believe that if I committed to basketball, I could make an impact in the NBA. I now see football as my job and my greatest challenge.

Julius Peppers

#9. I think the greatest all-around athlete ever was Jim Brown. He played lacrosse, basketball and ran track at Syracuse. He played professional football for the Browns.

Will McDonough

#10. My greatest gift that I have in life is basketball.

Isaiah Thomas

#11. I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

Elia Kazan

#12. In the end, the question is not, how do we use nature to serve our interests? It's how can we use humans to serve nature's interest?'

William McDonough

#13. Many of the most successful coaches and managers have come from players who never reached the highest level. The one exception seems to be basketball, where many of the greatest stars at least tried to coach a team.

George Vecsey

#14. Set this world on fire, Enzo. With everything you have.

Marie Lu

#15. There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either.

Michael Jordan

#16. The greatest sin a coach can commit is to allow kids to slide by. This goes for the classroom as well as the court

Hubie Brown

#17. But in every century, and ever since England has been what it is, an Englishman has always felt somewhat ashamed of his own emotion and of his own sympathy.

Emmuska Orczy

#18. And the man who remains calm inevitably takes command of a situation.

Hope Mirrlees

#19. What I know is that if you're going to play half-court, you'd better have the greatest executioners of half-court basketball. If you run, you test the stamina and willpower of the other team. That's what I learned as a player.

Tom Heinsohn

#20. Discipline is the greatest form of love you can show someone. Great players crave discipline

Tom Izzo

#21. Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.

Scottie Pippen

#22. In basketball, you can be the greatest individual player in the world and still lose every game, because a team will always beat an individual.

Bill Walton

#23. Art is the funnel, as it were, through which spirit is poured into life.

Thomas Mann

#24. I played when I played, and played, I think, against the greatest players in the greatest time in the history of basketball.

Oscar Robertson

#25. The greatest words you hear in college basketball are Ohio State advances. (The Iowa upset) is amazing. But again, it's all the proof you need that there's no guarantee.

Thad Matta

#26. Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

Larry Bird

#27. The greatest compliment to any player is he is a great teammate. We can't all be great players, but we can all be great teammates

Jay Bilas

#28. Someone was waving a large pink-and-white sign that read, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." I was trying, and so were at least thirty thousand other bodies, with varying degrees of post-Aquarian patience, to see the Who for the first time in a year.

Ellen Willis

#29. We cut him off and there was nowhere for him to go but out of bounds ... It's still the greatest move I've ever seen in basketball, the all-time greatest.

Magic Johnson

#30. Even the greatest players accept coaching and value the need for discipline and the order that it brings to the team

Jack Ramsay

#31. The greatest strength any human being an have is to recognize his or her own weaknesses. When you identify your weaknesses, you can begin to remedy them - or at least figure out how to work around them.

Pat Summitt

#32. Not doing pictures these days?" Jacin muttered as they hurried through the shop. "How very Lunar of you."
Cinder glared against the sudden, burning sunlight. "Very wanted criminal of me too.

Marissa Meyer

#33. I wasn't a bad basketball player, but I was far from the world's greatest. Good defense, no offense - that was me.

Chuck Connors

#34. I found the bench to be the greatest ally when I had to make individuals comply with what was best for the team

John Wooden

#35. The greatest ally you have to get things working well and the players performing as a team is the bench. Don't be afraid to use it, either for the star player or anyone else.

John Wooden

#36. I had no cause to be happy. I felt sad with a good reason, and it wouldn't be right to mess with that feeling. I thought I ought to just stay sad for a while.

Natalie Standiford